Carroll and Torres are two players that have looked very good at points in their careers and then have looked utter shite. We love to laugh at them, but there are many other players which the same applies to. Crouch, Berbatov, Hernandez and Rooney all go through patches of good and bad form.

Now I'm not suggesting Rooney is a bad player, he is first class. But his goal scoring at least goes through runs of scoring every game and then not scoring for a month.

But on the other players; when does Berbatov stop being a classy forward and start being a Liability? When does Carroll stop being a strong fast striker and start being a generic brute with no skill?

How much time do you give these players and is striker the position which is hardest to keep in form?

If they are really good strikers, bad form shouldn't mean they can play as shit and blame their bad form for that. If you are good player, and you are off form, you still have to put at least decent performances, to show why people rate you so high.

First question: what kind of strikers are they? A player like RvP or Torres at his best does 3 things: they slot away chances made by others; they make their own chances; and they make chances for others. At the other end of the spectrum you get players like Defoe and Hernandez who contribute very little to overall team play and basically need chances supplied by others. Hence, an out-of-form, one-dimensional striker is going to be a liability.

First question: what kind of strikers are they? A player like RvP or Torres at his best does 3 things: they slot away chances made by others; they make their own chances; and they make chances for others. At the other end of the spectrum you get players like Defoe and Hernandez who contribute very little to overall team play and basically need chances supplied by others. Hence, an out-of-form one dimensional striker is going to be a liability.

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Very true and a good summary. It's interesting that for example Hernandez and Berbatov can be so different players, but when the are off form they are equally as useless.

Are the best strikers then, either players who still contribute when off form (Rooney, Torres, RVP), or players who remain on form for a long time (Ruud, Shearer, struggling to think of more names)

I think the problem is that alot of clubs keep so many strikers on the roster and rotate them too often and the byproduct of that, is class strikers don't produce at the level they are capable of and are considered shit.

It's very hard to get into any kind of form, when you don't play for a month and are thrown in and expected to deliver and then are out of the team again the next game. Dzeko started out brightly and as soon as he stopped scoring, he was out of the team and was a candidate to leave in the summer. If Dzeko was at Bolton and playing regualrly, he'd probably have 20+ goals this season.

I think the problem is that alot of clubs keep so many strikers on the roster and rotate them too often and the byproduct of that, is class strikers don't produce at the level they are capable of and are considered shit.

It's very hard to get into any kind of form, when you don't play for a month and are thrown in and expected to deliver and then are out of the team again the next game. Dzeko started out brightly and as soon as he stopped scoring, he was out of the team and was a candidate to leave in the summer. If Dzeko was at Bolton and playing regualrly, he'd probably have 20+ goals this season.

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True, but also the football that City play doesn't really tend to suit a big target man like Dzeko.

People have been going on about his "product" being good for months. Possibly a year now actually.

Personally I haven't seen it but I don't watch Chelsea every week. And I imagine if you play well but miss chances, Match of the Day won't make you look too good.

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Yeah but thats Berbatov sydrome at best. I mean you have him mentioned, but in his worst season people were saying the same on here about him. That his product was still good and he was doing well. I think players who were once "quality" will always have their fans saying that, trying to defend the fact their club paid a huge amount for them regardless of whats actually going on. Torres was working hard and set up chances for team mates but he wasnt scoring goals. Kevin Davis was doing the same thing, I dont think it can be described as good product.